OFFSET

Archive 2009

40 hours of professional insights, engaging discussions and challenging insights from industry leaders from the fields of Graphic Design, Photography, Animation, Illustration, Fashion, Film and more.

Featuring presentations on the following:  
- Complicated simplicity: Designing the NYC Subway Map.
- Disruptive Art in public spaces.
- Balancing corporate work with personal projects.
- How a small agency can make it big.
- The maths behind the art of commercial VFX.
- Award winning book design: Judging a book by its cover.
- Multi-platform communication for the fashion industry.
- Sgt. Pepper: Designing the most iconic album cover ever.
- Representing your thought process in doodles.
- Main Street retail design.
+ More.

Main Stage  (in order of appearance):
Studio AAD | Asbestos | Anthony Burrill | Sir Peter Blake | Graphic Thought Facilty | Brad Downey | Tara McPherson | Dave McKean | Serge Siedlitz | Oliver Jeffers | ShowStudio | Harry Pearce - Pentagram | James Jean | Massimo & Lella Vignelli | PJ Lynch | Chris Haughton | Experimental Jetset | House Industries | Daniel Danger | Atelier David Smith | Chip Kidd | The London Police | The Mill

MASSIMO VIGNELLI | OFFSET 2009

MASSIMO VIGNELLI | OFFSET 2009 Design giant Massimo Vignelli gave an amazing, insightful and measured main stage talk, to a packed auditorium at our very first event in 2009. When we launched OFFSET the dream of inviting Massimo and his wife Lella to Ireland was one of our original goals. When they said yes to our invite, we were overjoyed. Over the course of their stay they were so generous with their time, passionate about their work and supportive of their fellow speakers. It was both inspiring and humbling.

ANTHONY BURRILL | OFFSET 2009

ANTHONY BURRILL | OFFSET 2009 Anthony Burrill is an independent designer and illustrator who works in a broad range of activities, including print, film and internet. After studying Graphic Design at Leeds Polytechnic he completed an MA in Graphic Design at the Royal College of Art, London. Where he created his now trademark technique for direct communication.

ATELIER DAVID SMITH | OFFSET 2009

ATELIER DAVID SMITH | OFFSET 2009 Atelier is the studio practice of designer David Smith and his associate Oran Day. Primarily working in design and communications for print, the studio also undertakes design writing and research projects for clients in the public and cultural sectors.

CHIP KIDD | OFFSET 2009

CHIP KIDD | OFFSET 2009 Chip Kidd is a writer and graphic designer in New York City. His book jacket designs for Alfred A. Knopf (where he has worked since 1986) have helped spawn a revolution in the art of American book packaging. He spoke in his inimitable way at OFFSET 2009 about the process of book cover design.

CHRIS HAUGHTON | OFFSET 2009

CHRIS HAUGHTON | OFFSET 2009 Chris Haughton is an Irish illustrator living between London and India who presented his work at OFFSET 2009. He illustrates regularly for The Guardian, The Times, and The Independent and many other publications. He has worked for several large national and international advertising campaigns, and created murals in London and Tokyo. He was listed in Time magazine's 'DESIGN 100' 2008 for the work he has been doing for fair trade clothing company People Tree.

DANIEL DANGER | OFFSET 2009

DANIEL DANGER | OFFSET 2009 Daniel Danger spoke at OFFSET in 2009. He is an illustrator and printmaker working out of New England. Daniel is best known for his screen-printed art prints and posters and has exhibited in Manchester, San Francisco, New York, LA, Chicago, as well, he has shown at SXSW. Daniels work has been used for bands such as Modest Mouse, The Decemberists, The Pogues, Sonic Youth, Built to Spill, Flight of the Conchords, Mogwai, Fall Out Boy, The Arcade Fire and many more.

Daniel runs Tiny Media Empire, a production company who release his art prints and posters, as well as elaborately packaged vinyl records and albums, artwork and vinyl box sets, designer toys, and prints by
other artists. As well, he currently plays baritone guitar and sings in the erratic indie rock band A City Safe From Sea, releasing their debut full length LP in July 2009.

He has a cat named after internet slang.

DAVE MCKEAN | OFFSET 2009

DAVE MCKEAN | OFFSET 2009 Dave McKean has illustrated many award winning comics and books, including The Big Fat Duck Cookbook (Heston Blumenthal), What's Welsh For Zen (John Cale), Varjak Paw (SF Said), The Savage (David Almond), Arkham Asylum (Grant Morrison), The Homecoming (Ray Bradbury), Wizard and Glass (Stephen King), The Graveyard Book, Wolves in the Walls, Coraline, Mr. Punch, Signal to Noise and Crazy Hair (all by Neil Gaiman).

He has written and illustrated the graphic novel Cages and short story collection Pictures That Tick, and is working on a new novel and second volume of short stories. He has designed and illustrated well over a hundred cd covers for artists as diverse as Michael Nyman, Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, Bill Laswell, Bill Bruford, Counting Crows, Iain Ballamy, Tori Amos and Frontine Assembly.

He has designed a Broadway Musical, creatures for the Harry Potter films, advertising campaigns for Kodak, Nike, Smirnoff, BMW Mini and the British Government, and exhibited in Europe, America and Japan. He has also directed five short films and two feature films, MirrorMask and Luna.

He lives in Kent, England with his wife and two children.

DAVID SHRIGLEY | OFFSET 2009

DAVID SHRIGLEY | OFFSET 2009 One of the highlights of OFFSET 2009 was the ever entertaining Glasgow-based artist David Shrigley.

Although he works in various media, he is best known for his mordantly humorous cartoons released in softcover books or postcard packs. Like the poet Ivor Cutler, Shrigley finds humour in flat depictions of the inconsequential, the unavailing and the bizarre - although he is far fonder of violent or otherwise disquieting subject matter. Shrigley's work has two of the characteristics often encountered in outsider art - an odd viewpoint, and (in some of his work) a deliberately limited technique. His freehand line is often weak, which jars with his frequent use of a ruler; his forms are often very crude; and annotations in his drawings are poorly executed and frequently contain crossings-out.

Shrigley is a lifelong supporter of Nottingham Forest FC.

EXPERIMENTAL JETSET | OFFSET 2009

EXPERIMENTAL JETSET | OFFSET 2009 Experimental Jetset's presentation at OFFSET 2009 looked at their own work through the lense of Sir Peter Blake.

Hailing from Amsterdam, they are a graphic design unit founded in 1997 by Marieke Stolk, Erwin Brinkers and Danny van den Dungen. Focusing mainly on printed matter and installations, Experimental Jetset have worked on projects for the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum (SMCS), Purple Institute, Centre Pompidou, Colette, Dutch Post Group (TPG), Réunion des Musées Nationaux (RMN), Le Cent Quatre (104), De Theatercompagnie and t-shirt label 2K/Gingham.

Their work has been featured in group exhibitions such as Terminal Five (JFK Airport, New York, 2004) and The Free Library (Riviera Gallery, New York, 2004). Solo exhibitions have included Kelly 1:1 (Casco Projects, Utrecht, 2002) and Ten Years of Posters (Kemistry Gallery, London, 2006).

In 2007, a large selection of work by Experimental Jetset has been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), for inclusion in the MoMA permanent collection. Since 2000, Experimental Jetset have been teaching at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (Amsterdam).

GRAPHIC THOUGHT FACILITY | OFFSET 2009

GRAPHIC THOUGHT FACILITY | OFFSET 2009 Graphic Thought Facility is a London-based graphic design consultancy. Established as a partnership in 1990 by Paul Neale, Andy Stevens and Huw Morgan. GTF’s team currently consists of seven designers. Working on national and international projects, they produce print and three-dimensional graphics for clients in the retail and cultural sectors.

Past and ongoing projects include brand identity and signage for Frieze Art Fair (2002–present); brand-identity for the Design Museum and continued exhibition collaboration (2002-present); re-branding, packaging, marketing and press material for Habitat (1996–2002); store graphics and signage for Marks & Spencer (2004–present) and continued regular print materials for The Gagosian Gallery, New York and London. A significant part of GTF’s work is in the field of graphic design for exhibitions where they have collaborated on projects for the National Museum of Science and Industry, The Victoria & Albert Museum, The Natural History Museum, The National Maritime Museum, The Wellcome Collection, Manchester City Galleries and The Design Museum GTF projects have been included in group exhibitions in Europe, Asia and America.

HARRY PEARCE | OFFSET 2009

HARRY PEARCE | OFFSET 2009 Harry Pearce, Partner in Pentagram Design, presents The Schizophrenic Road at OFFSET2009 to packed auditorium.

HOUSE INDUSTRIES | OFFSET 2009

HOUSE INDUSTRIES | OFFSET 2009 Known throughout the world as a prolific type foundry, House Industries has made a considerable impact on the world of design. Their fonts scream from billboards, wish happy whatever from tens of thousands of greeting cards, serve as the basis for consumer product logos and add elements of style to a wide range of mainstream media. In their illustrious career, House artists have mastered a large cross-section of design disciplines.

Their typography deftly melds cultural, musical and graphic elements. From early forays into distressed digital alphabets to sophisticated type and lettering systems, House Industries’ work transcends graphic conventions and reaches out to a broad audience. What ultimately shines in the House Industries oeuvre is what always conquers mediocrity: a genuine love for their subject matter. Be it hot rods, classically relevant lettering or Swiss Modernism, House continues to provide typographic optimism in this age of the lowest aesthetic common denominator.

Rich Roat, one of House Industries founders, was our speaker and his enthusiasm was incredible over the whole weekend.

JAMES JEAN | OFFSET 2009

JAMES JEAN | OFFSET 2009 James Jean is a Taiwanese-American award winning artist and illustrator living in Los Angeles.

He was born in Taiwan but was raised in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey. He was educated at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Upon graduating in 2001, he quickly became an acclaimed cover artist for DC Comics, garnering seven Eisner awards, three consecutive Harvey awards, two gold medals and a silver from the Society of Illustrators of LA, and a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators of NY. He has also contributed to many national and international publications. His clients include Time Magazine, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, ESPN, Atlantic Records, Target, Playboy, Knopf, Prada among others. He has also illustrated covers for the comic book series Fables and The Umbrella Academy, for which he has won five Eisner Awards for "Best Cover Artist".

James Jean currently has four published works, all of which collect his illustrations and art: Process Recess Volume 1, Process Recess Volume Two, Fables: Covers and XOXO. The Process Recess volumes display Jean's process in his illustrations, by showing both the original sketches and the final coloring, Process Recess is also the name of his blog, which includes similar content. Fables: Covers is a collection of all the cover art illustrations James Jean has made for the comic book series Fables. Finally, XOXO is a selection of his illustrations displayed in the form of postcards.

OLIVER JEFFERS | OFFSET 2009

OLIVER JEFFERS | OFFSET 2009 Oliver Jeffers makes art. From figurative painting and installation to illustration and picture-book making, his work has been exhibited and published in New York, Dublin, London, Sydney, Washington DC, Belfast and elsewhere.

His picture books, including Lost and Found, The Incredible Book Eating Boy, and most recently, The Great Paper Caper. Oliver was brought up in Northern Ireland and now lives and works in New York.

PJ LYNCH | OFFSET 2009

PJ LYNCH | OFFSET 2009 P. J. Lynch has worked as a Children’s Book Illustrator for 25 years, publishing over 18 internationally distributed titles, including the Hans Christian Anderson's The Ice Queen, Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol and Oscar Wilde's Stories For Children.

He has won many awards including the Mother Goose Award, the Christopher Medal three times, and the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal on two occasions, first for ‘The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey’ by Susan Wojciechowski, and again for ‘When Jessie Came Across the Sea’ by Amy Hest.

‘The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey’ has sold more than a million copies in the United States alone, and has recently been made into a motion picture. In recent years PJ has seen his work expand out of the book illustration world with many commissions including posters for Opera Ireland and the The Abbey Theatre as well as several sets of stamps for An Post (the Irish Postal service), including four Christmas issues.

He has also completed work on two large scale murals in oils on the theme of ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ for the new Cavan County Library. His latest work, an illustrated book about Abraham Lincoln by Rosemary Wells was published earlier this year.

SIR PETER BLAKE | OFFSET 2009

SIR PETER BLAKE | OFFSET 2009 We had the great pleasure to welcome Sir Peter Blake to Dublin for OFFSET 2009. In this video, he talks about his life and work with Hugh Linehan. Peter appeared at OFFSET in association with Genesis Publications who published his collaboration with Brian Wilson entitled "That Lucky Old Sun".

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